Locking devices for cabinets, drawers, access panels, lockers, and other furniture items can take many forms. In one example, a dead bolt lock is attached to a door or other access panel. When the door or panel is closed, a user can turn a knob or key, and the dead bolt will extend out from a lock housing into a strike plate or behind the door frame to lock the door closed. The user can turn the knob or key back to the original position, and the dead bolt will retract back into its housing, thereby unlocking the door and allowing the user to open it.
In another example, a push-to-close latch is similarly attached to a door or panel and has a latch with a ramp end. The latch is spring-biased to a locked position and extends outwardly from the housing. As the user closes the door, the latch contacts the strike plate. The strike plate then forces the latch inward against the spring force as the door continues to close. After the latch clears the strike plate, the spring forces the latch to its extended position behind the door frame and the door becomes locked. To open the door or panel, the user can, for example, turn a key or rotate a handle to retract the latch back into the housing.
Locks as described above must be compact to fit within the furniture item and avoid consuming excessive space. Given the tight constraints within furniture, a specific orientation of the body of the electromechanical lock may be required with respect to the action of the bolt or latch. Moreover, a customer will usually order many locks at a given time, and he or she may not wish to pre-determine which orientations for each use are required prior to the order. In this case, a locking device that can easily be configured to operate in different directions would be desirable.
Moreover, electro-mechanical furniture locks have been proposed. These locks include an electric motor that can extend or retract the dead bolt, or retract the latch, upon receiving a pre-determined credential from a user. The credential may be in the form of an electronic key or a code input into a keypad. In one particularly desirable embodiment, the lock includes an active RFID reader, and the user presents an RFID tag, which holds the credentials. RFID readers, however, require continuous power by emitting interrogation signals. To ensure that the lock continues to function, these locking devices can be hardwired to a constant power source. Such hardwiring can be difficult to install and may require re-wiring of the building. On the other hand, a lock with an active RFID reader powered solely by batteries may not provide a desirable usage life. It would be desirable to construct a lock powered by batteries with a commercially acceptable lifetime of usage.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,455,335 discloses a lock having a lock housing that can be reoriented relative to a main housing to operate a locking element in any of three orientations. The '335 patent fails to disclose a battery-operated lock, however, and therefore, the disclosed lock must be hardwired. Furthermore, the '335 patent discloses that in addition to reorienting the lock housing, the user must also reorient a gear within the main housing to be aligned with the new orientation of the lock housing. This design involves an extra step for the end user, the possibility of losing the gear during manipulation, and the possibility of reorienting the gear incorrectly, thereby potentially damaging the lock when subsequently operated. It would be desirable for the locking device to eliminate the necessity of separately reorienting an internal gear within the main housing during reorientation of the lock housing.